In the current wireless communication networks, such as (evolved) Long-Term Evolution ((e)LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks, when a transceiver, for example, in a user equipment (UE) needs to perform signal quality measurements of a target cell, the UE switches from its current serving cell to the target cell during a measurement gap period to measure signal quality of the target cell. During the measurement gap period, the communication network does not schedule data transmission or reception for the UE in the serving cell (e.g., on the initial serving carrier). However, scheduling data transmission or reception around measure gaps may be no longer suitable in the next generation (e.g., the fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR)) wireless communication networks, where the latency requirement for successful data transmission of ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) services is envisaged to be in the sub-millisecond range. In addition, since data may be transmitted to a UE without grant in the next generation (e.g., 5G NR) wireless communication networks, the UE may receive data while taking measurements during measurement gap periods.
Thus, there is a need in the art for methods and devices for data transmission (e.g., downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL)) without grant during measurement gap.